Mourning Doves and Roses
Mourning Doves and Roses
Artist
Lucia Smith Carpenter Bliss
(1823 - 1912)
Dateca. 1845
MediumWatercolor on paper
Dimensions12 3/4 x 16 7/8 in. (32.4 x 42.9 cm)
Framed: 21 x 25 1/2 x 2 in. (53.3 x 64.8 x 5.1 cm)
Framed: 21 x 25 1/2 x 2 in. (53.3 x 64.8 x 5.1 cm)
ClassificationsWatercolor
Credit LineCrystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas, 2007.30
Accession number
2007.30
On View
Not on viewLabel TextInfluenced by English art critic John Ruskin, who believed the most important role of art is truth to nature, Lucia Smith Carpenter Bliss specialized in watercolors of flowers and nature studies based on her own close observations. However, compared to the works of other nineteenth-century naturalist-artists, Bliss’s depictions of flora and fauna, including her Inca Doves and Roses, have a more sentimental and idealized approach. Inca doves mate for life and are a symbol of love and peace, which might have inspired Bliss to romanticize her pair of doves by depicting them surrounded by wild roses. She positioned the watchful father on a twig above the nest, while the mother incubates her eggs inside it, framed by blossoms. The blue-shadowed background surrounding the pair further adds to the romantic atmosphere of the scene. Inca doves are known for their flimsy nests, which Bliss tellingly depicts in this image—the pair’s nest is loosely constructed with fine twigs on the firm foundation of a tree branch, but without any anchoring or additional stabilization. Bliss exhibited her watercolors at the Boston Art Club and used them as instructional materials in her art classes.
